Kings put their foot down

PLUS: Local podcaster ejected, Eastern contender looking rather complete, Dumb Tax charged against tankers.

Good morning. You can tell how many nights into the NBA playoffs we are by counting the bags under my eyes. Let’s basketball.

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Conversion on the Way to Damascus; Caravaggio; 1601

All the attention about a thrilling, stressful and important Game 2 of the Kings-Warriors series will likely focus on this: Domantas Sabonis falling to the ground on a defensive rebound attempt in the fourth quarter, appearing to grab Draymond Green’s ankle, Green stomping on Sabonis’ chest and then acting like a wrestling heel toward the crowd before being ejected.

The official call was a technical on Sabonis for the ankle grab (which very well could have been inadvertent; the Kings didn’t argue it, but Sabonis did say post-game that he was just protecting his face) and a Flagrant-2 on Green. After the game, Green claimed there was nowhere else to place his foot but Sabonis’ solar plexus. Obviously, everyone else on the Warriors downplayed it too. Meanwhile …

Those x-rays came back clean, but did lead to this nonsense.

Hilarious. Prayers up for DG.

What’s lost in all of the focus on the stomp is that the Kings were winning the game with Draymond Green on the floor and they were winning with Draymond Green off the floor. As in Game 1, the Kings were relentless on offense and in the fourth quarter the Warriors had no answer for De’Aaron Fox. Fox ended up with a much less efficient night overall, but produced in the end, darting past every defense the Warriors presented.

Watch the play at 1:15, which was right before the stomping incident. I’m stunned Green had any ankles left for Sabonis to grab, it looked to me like Fox snatched them!

Malik Monk was loud again (albeit less efficient than in Game 1). Kevin Huerter and Harrison Barnes weren’t very efficient but had some moments where you saw what they bring. In Barnes’ case, that would be a hammer. He brought a hammer.

Wait, sorry — that was two hammers in his bag.

We regret the error.

Sabonis played much better in Game 2: efficient in the lane in challenging Kevon Looney (plagued by foul trouble) and Green, he got to the line quite a bit and continued to overperform on pick-and-roll coverage on defense. The Warriors scored 106 points in 103 possessions, which is far, far below what that team is capable of and far below what the Kings usually give up. Mike Brown is throwing schemes and junk at the Warriors’ attack, and it’s working.

You know what else is working? Davion Mitchell. Offense from Mitchell has typically been found money for Sacramento. In the closing moments he had a huge three-point dagger and a huge assist. All night, he had lots of pesky defense to offer up as well.

So far in this series Curry and Green don’t really look like teammates who have been together almost a decade. Mitchell mucking up their action by fighting over screens and staying attached to Curry off-ball is causing a good bit of the discombobulation. Fox is doing what he can on that front as well, but Mitchell’s relentlessness is just different than anything else the Kings can provide.

Curry still had 28, mind you, and the Warriors won the 41 minutes he played. But they badly lost the seven minutes he sat, which is the biggest problem for the Warriors in this series: they do not have the bodies. Jordan Poole played 16 minutes, just five in the second half. This was the highlight of his night: getting mocked by Fox for flopping.

Poole tossed the ball at Fox’s legs after the taunt, but missed, similar to how he missed six of his seven shots.

Donte DiVincenzo started Game 1, came off the bench for Andrew Wiggins in Game 2 and … that did not go well. Gary Payton II played most of the second half, did well on defense and made the most of his open looks. Moses Moody got an extended look. I actually like Moody a good bit, but “Moses Moody got an extended look as the Warriors try to stave off their first 0-2 series in Steph Curry’s career” is not what the Warriors were hoping for. Jonathan Kuminga had enough court time to brew a cup of tea.

Steve Kerr basically has six players he appears to feel comfortable with in this series. One of them got himself ejected in the fourth quarter. Another just came back after 25 games missed due to personal reasons. Another played all of 22 games this season with a bad abdominal injury. This is a huge challenge not just in this round, but should the Warriors come back and advance to face the Lakers or Grizzlies. The players Kerr trusts are some of the best in the world. But there don’t appear to be enough of them right now. And one of them is constantly an impulse away from getting himself thrown out.